In September, the Trinity Network hosted its first ever Church Networks Round Table.
The Trinity Network is increasingly known around the country – and the region – as a leader in networking churches together for greater gospel impact, especially in church planting. As a result, Paul Harrington, Senior Network Pastor, is often being approached by church leaders for time to explain how our Network works.
Now this is great, but time consuming. It also occurred to Paul that, since a lot of the churches approaching him for advice have things of their own to contribute, wouldn’t it be good to get them all in the same room at the same time? That way, we could explain in ‘one go’ to lots of people how our Network works, but also give them the chance to help each other on the issues they’re wrestling with, as well as us learn from them.
And so, the Church Networks Round Table was born. In mid-September, 25 leaders from across Australia, and also from Singapore and New Zealand, gathered at Trinity Church Adelaide. For the first day, Paul and others from our Network explained how our Network works, and what we are still learning, with time for questions. Then, on the second day, delegates shared with each other the things they’re wrestling with, and helped speak into each other’s situations.
The question for some is: should we network our churches? And if so, how: as church plants that are separate from each other but still linked, or as more tightly bound ‘multi-site churches’ with much less individual independence?
The question for others is: how do we raise up leaders for our churches? And so on. The point is, the Round Table gave people from around the region a chance to help each other in a common goal: working out how to network their churches, so more people can be reached with the gospel, and God can be more glorified.
Will we run it again? We’re not sure. But it was definitely worth running this time, and we pray it will already be bearing fruit. It was also a great reminder of how kind God has been to us in our Network, and a great spur to prayer that he’ll keep working through us, for his glory.
